Angelina Jolie's Double Mastectomy: Q&A

May 14, 2013 -- Actress and activist Angelina Jolie's recent decision to have a preventive double mastectomy highlights the difficult choices facing women who find out they have a high risk for breast cancer because of their genes.

Although relatively rare, mutations in the BRCA1 and BRCA2 genes raise the risk of breast cancer by as much as 80%, experts say. The mutations also raise the risk of ovarian cancer.

Jolie describes in a New York Times op-ed piece why she decided to go through with the surgery. At 37, the mother of six wants to stay healthy and active for her family -- and to reassure them that she is doing everything possible to avoid the disease that took her mother's life: cancer.

“I wanted to write this to tell other women that the decision to have a mastectomy was not easy,” Jolie writes. “But it is one that I am very happy I made. My chances of developing breast cancer have dropped from 87 percent to under 5 percent. I can tell my children that they don’t need to fear they will lose me to breast cancer.”

WebMD asked breast surgeon Shelley Hwang, MD, chief of breast surgery and professor of surgery at Duke University Medical Center and Duke Cancer Institute, to fill us in on what else women need to know. Hwang did not treat Jolie.

Why do women undergo a preventive double mastectomy?

In Angelina Jolie's case, she had a mutation that puts her at very high risk for getting breast cancer at some point in her life. Right now the most effective prevention that we have for [this] BRCA mutation carrier is a prophylactic double mastectomy.

It is always a double mastectomy because both breasts are at risk and you don’t know which breast is going to get breast cancer when women have a BRCA mutation.

How many women have the BRCA mutation?

Only about 5% of all breast cancers are in women who have this genetic mutation.

Is the breast cancer linked with this mutation more aggressive than others?

Yes, BRCA mutations are associated with a more aggressive breast cancer that is known as "triple negative."